Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams

Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s money manager and head of his family office, is listed as chief executive officer. Musk’s longtime associate Jehan Balajadia, who worked at SpaceX and The Boring Company, has been named as the official contact.

But they are not connected to Musk’s new technology venture, or the political operation that has made him Donald Trump’s darling. Instead, they are linked to the billionaire’s new Montessori school outside Bastrop, Texas, called Ad Astra, according to documents filed with state officials and obtained through a Texas Public Information Act request.

The world’s richest man oversees an overlapping empire of six companies — or seven, if you include his political action committee. Along with rockets, electric cars, brain implants, social media, and the next Trump administration, he’s focusing on education from preschool to college. Part of his effort was revealed last year, when Bloomberg News reported that his foundation had set aside nearly $100 million to build a technology-focused elementary and middle school in Austin, with eventual plans for a university. Was. An additional $137 million in cash and stock was allocated last year, according to the most recent tax filing for the Musk Foundation.

Ad Astra is close to coming to fruition. Texas officials issued a preliminary permit last month, clearing the way for the center to begin working with 21 students, state documents show. Ad Astra’s website says it is “currently open to all children aged 3 to 9 years.” The school account on

To run the school, Ad Astra is partnering with a company that has experience with billionaires: Explore Education, which developed Hala Kahiki Montessori School in Lanai, Hawaii, the island home of Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison. % is owned.

Ad Astra is located on a highway outside Bastrop, a bedroom community about 30 miles from Austin and part of the area that is home to many of Musk’s businesses. On a recent weekday morning visit, there was a Toyota Prius in the parking lot and no one answered the door of the white building with a gray metal roof. The main entrance of the school was closed with a gate and there was no sign of any children on the grounds.

But what information there is about Ad Astra makes it seem like a pretty elite, high-level, Montessori preschool. The proposed program includes “thematic, STEM-based activities and projects” as well as outdoor play and nap time. A sample snack calendar includes carrots and hummus. Although Birchall and Balzadia’s names appear on the application, it is not clear whether they will have any significant role in the school once it is operational.

Musk, Birchall and Balajadia did not respond to emailed questions. Phone calls and emails to the school were not answered.

Access to high-quality, affordable childcare is a big issue for working parents across the country, and it’s an especially acute problem in rural areas like Bastrop. Many families live in “child care deserts” where there are either no facilities or no slots available. The opening of Ad Astra gives Musk a chance to showcase his vision for education, and his support for practical learning and problem solving. This is the identity of their industrial companies. His public comments about learning often overlap with popular cultural concerns among conservatives and the Make America Great Again crowd, often focusing on what he sees as young minds being indoctrinated by teachers spreading leftist propaganda. Is. He has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and posted in August that “Too many schools are teaching white boys to hate themselves.”

Musk’s educational interests match his new role as Trump’s “first friend.” The billionaire has set out for himself a role that he — and now the incoming Trump administration — calls “DOGE,” or Department of Government Efficiency. Although not an actual department, DOGE now posts on Musk-owned social media platform X. “The Department of Education spent more than $1 billion promoting DEI in America’s schools,” the account posted on Dec. 12 reads.

In Texas, Bastrop is fast becoming a major center of interest for Musk. The Boring Company, their tunneling enterprise, is located in an unincorporated area there. Across the street, SpaceX produces Starlink satellites in a 500,000-square-foot facility.

Nearby, X is constructing a building to house the trust and security personnel. Musk’s employees, as well as the general public, can grab breakfast at Boring Bodega, a convenience store located within Musk’s Hyperloop Plaza, which also includes a bar, candy shop, and hair salon.

Ad Astra is just a five-minute drive away. It seems to be designed with the children of Musk’s employees in mind – if not Musk’s own children. Musk has become a father to at least 12 children in the past five years, six of whom are daughters.

The school’s website reads, “Ad Astra’s mission is to foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in the next generation of problem solvers and builders.” A job posting on the website of the Montessori Institute of North Texas states, “While their parents champion breakthroughs that expand the scope of human possibility, their children will grow into the next generation of innovators who “Only authentic Montessori can provide that.”

The school has hired an executive director, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg from Texas Health and Human Services. Ad Astra is located on 40 acres of land, according to the documents, which state that the 4,000-square-foot home will be repurposed for a preschool.

It’s not unusual for entrepreneurs to take an interest in education, according to Bill Gormley, professor emeritus at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, who studies early childhood education. Charles Butt, president of the Texas-based HEB grocery chain, has made public education the center of his philanthropy. With other business and community leaders, Butt founded “Raise Your Hand Texas”, which advocates for school funding, teacher workforce and retention issues, and fully funding pre-kindergarten.

“Musk isn’t the only entrepreneur to recognize the value of preschool for Texas workers,” Gormley said. “A lot of politicians and business people get excited about education in general – and preschool in particular – as they look to the potential for a better workforce.”

Musk spent much of October actively campaigning for Trump’s presidential effort, making him the largest donor of the election cycle. He invested at least $274 million in political groups in 2024, including $238 million to the political action committee he founded, America PAC.

While most of the money raised by America PAC came from Musk himself, it also received support from other donors. Betsy DeVos, who served as education secretary in Trump’s first term, donated $250,000, federal filings show.

The education department is already the target of the new administration. Trump campaigned on the idea of ​​disbanding the department and eliminating diversity initiatives, and he has also taken aim at transgender rights.

Trump wrote in Agenda 47, “Instead of indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political content, as we are doing now, our schools should focus solely on preparing our children to succeed in the world of work. ” His campaign platform.

Musk has three children with musician Grimes and three with Shivon Zilis, who was actively involved in his brain machine interface company Neuralink in the past. All are below five years of age. Musk recently took Grimes’s son, X, with him on a trip to Capitol Hill. After his visit, he shared a graphic showing the growth of administrators in America’s public schools since 2000.

https://t.co/RzKaMTdeGM- Elon Musk December 5, 2024

In 2014, Musk opened a private school in Southern California for his five older children and the children of SpaceX employees – also known as Ad Astra. By 2020, the COVID pandemic was underway, and SpaceX was building operations in Texas.

In the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, SpaceX’s Starbase facility is home to the company’s giant Starship rocket, designed to carry humans to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX wants to incorporate the starbase as a city, and there is already a “Kenmont School at Starbase” child care center there. Separately, another SpaceX-owned Ad Astra day care facility appears to be under construction, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Musk is a fan of practical education. During a Tesla earnings call in 2018, he talked about the need for more electricians as the electric-car maker ramps up the energy side of its business. In 2020, on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Musk said that “a lot of smart people go into finance and law.”

“I have great respect for people who work with their hands and we need electricians, plumbers and carpenters,” Musk said while campaigning for Trump in Pennsylvania in October. “This is much more important than incremental political science majors.”

Ad Astra’s website says the cost of tuition will initially be subsidized, but in future years “tuition will be in line with local private schools including an extended day program.”

“I think we need significant reform in education,” Musk said at a separate Trump campaign event. “The priority should be to teach children skills that will be useful to them later in life, and any form of social promotion should be taken out of the classroom.”

With assistance from Sophie Alexander and Kara Carlson.

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